I have just read issue #75 of Batman and I have come to the conclusion that after over 30 years of reading Batman I am cancelling my subscription. Sorry, I just can’t stand the direction that Batman has been going for years now.
Here are my problems:
I remember when Batman used to just fight criminals in Gotham City. Remember the animated Batman series? Now he seems to be some cosmic Batman trying to solve all of the world’s problems.
I am an adult. BUT, I can’t follow the story line a lot of the time. I can’t imagine a kid picking up a Batman comic and understanding it at all. The last 20 issues or so of Batman trying to figure out how to get his mind back have been like nails on a chalkboard. Then when he finally does it’s his father that is causing problems???
This brings to to a much bigger point. STOP WITH THE ALTERNATE UNIVERSE STUFF! It is SOOOO confusing. I don’t want to be confused when reading a comic book. Thomas Wayne is alive and Batman too?? I literally have to do research to find out how some of these story lines have been created. Remember when it was just Batman and Robin fighting bad guys??? Batman is so complicated now. It seems like when the writers don’t know what to do you bring in an alternate universe OR Flash doing something with time. Honestly, I just over it.
I really miss my Batman and wish that writers would bring him back to the old detective trying to figure out some issue in Gotham. I always find it funny that when there is an animated movie or live action movie, DC always goes back to the basics but when they write comics they make them so confusing. I finished the Heroes in Crisis series and when I got to the last issue I was sooooo disappointed that it came down to Flash again.
I am so happy for DCuniverse.com because I am just going to re-read the older stuff and stop buying all of the new stuff until DC goes back to its origins.
Yes! I absolutely agree. I would love to see Batman just, you know, stop a crime every once in a while. He’s supposed to be waging a war on crime, but when every plot is some labyrinthine scheme against Batman himself, it feels more like crime is waging a war on him and gives you the sense that the people who say he creates his own villains are onto something.
I’ve never been a huge Batman reader. But with his current MO, I actively avoid stories that he’s merely related too. I was reticent to try DC Metal. But I figured, it was a Crisis-level event; it couldn’t possibly be all about Batman.
Wow, was I wrong. Not only was it all about Batman, but it suffered from everything your talking about. I mean, it was confusing, poorly written, and there was an entire multiverse after Batman! It’s just insane! And not in a good way.
Umm, I have been saying I dislike Batman since pretty much the forums opened. He isn’t a crime fighter anymore. He is far too gritty and dark for me to enjoy. I was reading a comic on here with a different suit for Batman than the current iteration. It was a Catwoman comic and I was just like wow, maybe I just hate Batman from like Infinite Crisis on. I know it is the year of the bat, but he just isn’t a character I can get behind. I love all his side characters though.
I realize I’m in the minority right now but I love Tom King’s Batman. I enjoy the longer plan he has and while I understand your frustrations, he only has one last volume to go, so I will see it out. He says this volume will leave his mark on Batman so we shall see.
I didn’t enjoy Scott Snyder’s run. It was almost like every single arc in that series had to be “event comic” big. I’ve preferred the more low-key stuff from Tom King since 2016. The Grant Morrison era on the book was equal parts entertaining and incomprehensible, but the bigger story is really rewarding if you’re willing to stick with it to the end. Pre-Infinite Crisis, we had Hush and Under the Hood, two big action blockbuster arcs that perfectly exemplified the “parts better than the whole” storytelling of the early-to-mid 2000s.
The book Batman didn’t really have its own identity from the start of No Man’s Land until Hush, so it’s hard to say anything about it one way or another during that period. Before then, you had the Doug Moench/Kelley Jones run, which is an acquired taste, and if you go even further back, you hit another period in the early 1990s where the book didn’t have its own identity. From Year One to A Lonely Place of Dying, there was a clear set of voices that distinguished Batman from Detective Comics (and vice versa), and that’s probably where you’d have to go if you want a periodical entitled “Batman” that’s (1) its own book and not just part of a multi-title storyline, and (2) focused on detective stories instead of big, bombastic story arcs that seem to have little purpose other than attempting to outdo the last one.
The “mind game” stuff was a bit confusing, but The War of Jokes and Riddles and The Wedding plotlines were some of the best stuff ever written and I am intrigued to see how City of Name goes.
Batman used to stay behind on the JLA satellite when a cosmic menace struck. Now he pushes Superman and Wonder Woman aside to punch Darkseid. I can only suspend my disbelief willingly so far.
I dig King’s run but I do agree there’s been a shortage of street-level Batman stories over the last few years. In theory Tomasi’s Detective would be filling that gap but he doesn’t have the chops for it. The upcoming Ellis/ Hitch series sounds like it might fit the bill though.
I pretty much agree. I dropped King’s run 10-15 issues ago and dropped Tomasi’s run two issues back. I just want a more grounded, street level vigilante that focuses on fighting crime in Gotham. So much of King’s run has been Batman going to another dimension with Wonder Woman to fight demons, or going an alternate dimension with Booster Gold. I don’t mind deep, complex, character breakdowns but I still want the narrative to be built around a vigilante waging a war on crime in his city.
Thank goodness for Black Label and all these out of continuity stand-alone Bat-titles we’re getting (White Knight, Dark Prince Charming, Damned, etc.) Those have helped keep me sane and have mostly given me the Bat-fix I need.
Literally, since the New 52, I don’t even know what is going on. Do we now have an alternate universe Batman? I’ll admit it: I don’t even know who the Joker is anymore. Is he some new Joker? Did the old Joker come back? Since the old Superman came back when the new one died, does that mean this is a new Batman???
I have a similar issue with Justice League. I’m tired of “high concept” stories. I’m tired of huge universe spanning events. I just want them to fight bad guys on a more down to earth level. I don’t want to read how they fought the Multiversal Guardian of Despair by crafting a magical Nth metal broadsword out of happy feelings.
I want them to save Keystone City from Gorilla Grodd’s army, stop The Key from enslaving Africa, or just beat the crap out of the Royal Flush Gang.
I have some common ground with you. I enjoy King’s Batman though I haven’t been keeping up with it for the last year or so. Maybe it’s crapped the bed since then.
I do not necessarily mind Batman taking on more oddball and large scale threats as opposed to being a mere street level hero, but I do dislike the way Batman takes on threats these days. In particular, I think he’s too powerful. I prefer a Batman who is nigh human. I know he is ostensibly human now, but he regularly leaps ten feet vertically, survives falls from skyscrapers, ramps motorcycles onto passing planes and treats swords through the chest like a bad splinter. I hate that. I also hate the, "I have a Bat-PerfectlyCountersYourEvilPlansEvenThoughIDidntKnowIdBeFightingYouToday on my utility belt. Let me use my Bat-PerfectlyCountersYourEvilPlansEvenThoughIDidntKnowIdBeFightingYouToday, then jump in a mech and then stomp on you, and let’s not forget he probably had a plan for this exact scenario that he thought up when he was six months old.
I hate him relying on superhuman level abilities and ridiculous tech. I want a man with a slight comic book boost (we don’t have to see him healing for a month from the bruised ribs every time he takes a bullet to his vest) using his brain and body to win the day, and he can use some fairly realistic level tech.
I don’t think batman is bad right now I mean all this storyline has been about is bane trying to break Batmans mind I don’t think that’s to big of a threat for Batman to face also if you see Thomas Wayne’s Batman in the book it takes like 5 seconds to look up what flashpoint was and what Thomas Wayne’s role in the flashpoint universe is so to me it’s not really hard any question you have about any character the answer can literally be found on your phone by Googling it